Teresa Polk reports on the pro-family demonstration in Madrid that had a crowd of perhaps 2 million people. As is usual in the media this is described as tens of thousands of people, though even the NYT mentioned an estimate of 1.5 million people. The protest was organized in response to new Spanish laws recognizing homosexual unions and making divorce more readily available and included speeches on pro-life.

Interestingly Pope Benedict XVI spoke via a video screen to the people at the demonstration.

“Founded in the indissoluble union between man and woman, it is the place in which human life is sheltered and protected from its beginning until its natural end,” Pope Benedict said.

I was glad to find that the above picture was not the Pope's speech to the Lilliputians.

Deal Hudson wonders if pro-life leaders here in the United States have ever asked the Pope to do the same thing for the March of Life? That would be great if he did since surely the March of Life contains a lot of Catholics and other churches and groups surely recognize the role the Pope's have played in the pro-life cause.

Here is a headline that doesn't sound quite right.

A small, highly religious town in southwest Louisiana has finally gained the right to change their 666 area code, which they consider a stigma. For 40 years the town of Reeves, La., has battled to change the phone prefix, but has failed at least four times, Mayor Scott Walker told The Associated Press.

But beginning this month, residents and businesses can apply to change their area code from 666 to 749.

�This boils down to, this is a very, very religious community,� Walker said, according to AP. The town has three churches, two Bible and one Baptist, in a community with less than 450 homes.

This reminds me of another recent story.

The highway that stretches from Laredo to Duluth, Minn., has grabbed the attention of Christians across the country, including those in Austin.

Members of Christian groups along the I-35 corridor said the highway was mentioned in the Bible, and in order to fulfill a prophecy, it needs a little saving first. According to Light The Highway, the worldwide movement is driving thousands to prayer on the interstate. Christians said the Old Testament's book of Isaiah prophesizes I-35 will be the United States' "Highway of Holiness." Isaiah 35:8 reads: "And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it."

"Everything we do, we want to make sure scripture is backing us up," said Austin's PromiseLand Church Pastor Charlie Lujan. "I-35 being Isaiah 35, it just matched."

Friends don't let friends use Sola Scriptura.

Recently in the news has been the story of the 69 year old pro-life man who was assaulted outside of an abortion clinic and knocked unconscious. Pro-lifers are not surprised that this is not getting reported on knowing the media bias. Though I am surprised to find out that the police interviewed the assailant and then let him leave.

Gerald in a post titled The "narrative of the transgendered" writes:

Deconstructionism is entrenched in Academia. Nothing is what it is, only a person's "narrative" is true. Everything is a construct. Male and female ? Constructs imposed by society. Unfortunately, politicians like Schwarzenegger are either giving in to or promoting the ideology of these fiends. Because they hysterically bitch, people give in to their demands, hoping they'll go away. Corporations are even more cowardly than politicians, since they can be hurt where it counts. These leftist enemies of society wield power far beyond their numbers. How else could one explain the absurd accomodation of the mentally ill "transgendered" people? If you think to yourself, "Man, I feel like a woman", you're free to use the women's restroom. After all, it's your "narrative", "your truth" that counts, everything else is a societal "construct". This is niftily protected by the BS known as hate crime laws - federal, no less. Mind you, I don't care if some dude looks like a lady, but you can't convince me, under penalty of law, that it's just as "normal". I never had a problem with tolerance, when it meant that you live and let live. But, nowadays, if you don't accept that 2+4=666, you're prone to be sent to the re-education camp. It is what Nietzsche called the Umwertung aller Werte - the "re-evaluation" of all values. In order for wrong to be right, right must become wrong.

And then goes on to link to an article in the Opinion Journal "Crossing Over: What will prevent the 250-pound linebacker from deciding he wants to share the locker room with the cheerleaders?"

Which makes me wonder if people can be transgendered why not trans-race? I mean if biology lies and people who are biologically of one sex and feel that they are another sex can advance this position and seen as perfectly normal why can't other equal positions be advanced without ridicule? Surely if something like XX and XY karyotypes mean nothing than the amount of melanin in your skin along with other physical racial characteristics also mean nothing if the person "feels" that they are of another race.

I wonder what would happen if someone applied for a minority scholarship at a university even though they were white and then said "I always felt I was a black man and never felt comfortable as a white man." Most likely they would be given directions to the latest psychiatric ward. Too bad they don't apply the same common sense to those who think they are transgendered and the ridiculous idea that their biology lies. Though if President Clinton could be called the first "black president" by fellow liberals than why can't others say they belong to some race other their own. Having a problem getting a job because of affirmative action? All you have to do is to find that you feel that you belong to a minority group currently favored by a quota.

In modern liberalism feelings always trump facts which is why those who have a mental illness and think they are transgendered don't get treatment, but special treatment as a protected class.

Since I am current reading the outstanding biography of St. Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd (The Life of Thomas More) it is interesting to make a comparison between this saint and the saint who is celebrated today -- St. Thomas Becket.

Interestingly they were both born within 20 yards of each other but a little over three hundred years apart. Both wore hair shirts under their fine clothing ,though Thomas More started doing this early in his life and Thomas Becket accepted the practice towards the end of their life. They both ended up being Load Chancellor and both ended up being martyred defending the rights of the Church against the King (Henry II, Henry VIII). In both cases this included defending the Primacy of Peter.

Though St. Thomas Becket is truly someone who grew in office. In the U.S. they refer to Supreme Court justices who become more liberal during their time on the court as growing in office, but Thomas Becket truly grew in office since he grew in holiness. No one would have pegged Thomas Becket as someone likely to be martyred earlier in his career. His appointment as the Archbishop of Canterbury was largely a political appointment with Henry II thinking he was stacking this position in his favor. Yet St. Thomas Becket became an ascetic and took his duties seriously and defended the Church against local control of the Church.

It has been reported that Henry II said "Who will rid me of this turbulent (or troublesome ) priest?" or something along that and his command was taken as authority to kill the Archbishop. You do wish there were more troublesome priests/bishops in England today that annoyed politicians.

Reading the Liturgy of the Hours this morning it reminded me of what the International Theological Commission said in their document this year "The Hope of salvation for infants who die without being baptised."

5. Secondly, taking account of the principle lex orandi lex credendi, the Christian community notes that there is no mention of Limbo in the liturgy. In fact, the liturgy contains a feast of the Holy Innocents, who are venerated as martyrs, even though they were not baptised, because they were killed “on account of Christ”. There has even been an important liturgical development through the introduction of funerals for infants who died without Baptism. We do not pray for those who are damned. The Roman Missal of 1970 introduced a Funeral Mass for unbaptised infants whose parents intended to present them for Baptism. The Church entrusts to God’s mercy those infants who die unbaptised. In its 1980 Instruction on Children’s Baptism, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed that: “with regard to children who die without having received Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as indeed she does in the funeral rite established for them”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) adds that: “the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved [1Tim 2:4], and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them’ (Mk 10:14), allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism”

On a quick trip to Rome a few weeks ago, I made it a point to visit the Gesu, the mother church of the Society of Jesus, and to pray for the Jesuits and their general congregation opening January 7. I found much of the church's magnificent Baroque interior concealed by scaffolding set up for a housecleaning before that crucial event.

The symbolism couldn't have been more apt. Just as the Gesu, in the historic heart of Rome, needed renovating, so does the Society itself. Rather than operating at the cutting edge of the Church, Jesuits in recent decades have fallen increasingly behind the times and, not unlike the Gesu, now stand in need of some serious renewing.

This is not an anti-Jesuit polemic. I am grateful for the education I received from the Society. Over the years I've known many Jesuits, and most have been — and still are — admirable men, loyal sons of the Church deeply devoted to the service of the people of God. Many have been, and still are, my friends. Yet as 217 Jesuits from around the world convene at the Society's headquarters near St. Peter's Square for the 35th general congregation in the order's history, they face the challenge of not only electing a new General Superior but setting directions for a body in long-running crisis.

Business as usual won't work. The Jesuits need an overhaul and they need it soon. Numbers underscore the urgency. Forty years ago there were 35,000 Jesuits in the world. Now there are 19,000. The dropoff has been even steeper in the United States, where the Society counted over 8,000 members in 1965 and now has under 3,000.

...Two years ago Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., General Superior of the Society since 1983, announced that he would retire in 2008 when he turned 80. The delegates to the 35th general congregation have the task of choosing a successor and setting policy for the years ahead. People who care about the Jesuits should wish them much success. That's what I prayed for at the Gesu when I was there.

The problem with so many religious orders and what is evident with the Jesuits that instead of refocusing on their orders charism and jettisoning what gets in the way of it they also jettisoned essentials. It is like the old comedies taking place on a train where pieces of the train are taken apart to feed the boiler and everything else is thrown over the side to keep it moving. Vatican II's Perfactae Caritatis called for a "constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes" not throwing the surrender flag to modernity.

Unfortunately Jesuits being faithful to the Magisterium are the exceptions and not the rule, but I certainly do hope and pray that an election of a new General Superior of the Society can help them return to the Jesuits of old that will take their charism into the modern world in a more faithful way.

The questions is will they elect someone who realizes just how far the Society has fallen or someone that will say the parrot is not dead. The current Jesuit General had this to say in an interview this year.

In recent years, the Society of Jesus has seen a drop in candidates for the novitiate. What are the reasons?

Sometimes we forget that a religious family is, in a happy expression of the Second Vatican Council, ‘a gift of the Spirit to the church.’ The church can’t be the church without clergy and laity, but it can be church without religious life in its present form. The church lived for centuries without the Jesuits! … Religious families are born and they disappear, not because they did something wrong, but because the church requires other gifts to meet other needs of the people of God. The simple fact that today a young man who wants to put himself at the service of the church doesn’t necessarily have to choose between the seminary and the novitiate, but can also find his mission in one of the new ecclesial movements that are also a gift of the Spirit, changes the whole context of consecrated life.

Over the years, you’ve handled delicate relationships between some Jesuit theologians and the Vatican. What are the necessary limits, and what’s the space for welcoming a plurality of theological reflection in the Society?

[Theology] unfolds today in a nervous atmosphere of conflicts and polarization, in which everything is immediately classified as either ‘right’ or ‘left,’ as conservatism or progressive thought. Even a constructive critique by a theologian, based on deep competence, pastoral concern and discernment born in prayer, runs the risk of being taken up by the mass media in a partial fashion (either unwittingly or deliberately) in order to turn it into front-page news. On the other hand, the church can’t renounce its right, and its duty, to protect the faithful against errors or possibly erroneous interpretations of a given theological work, even if it’s valid in itself. In this context, which at first blush can seem discouraging, it’s important to be grateful for so many theologians – among them, not just a few Jesuits – who provide the church the indispensable service of positive, clear and creative theological reflection, which serves the greater good of the whole church in its socio-cultural diversity.

No wonder that out of the really small number of theologians that have been investigated by the CDF, four of them have been Jesuits. You also get the feeling the Jesuit theologian he is praising are not in the mode of Cardinal Dulles, S.J. May the next "Black Pope" have a lot firmer ideas about both the charism of their founder and an understanding of the problems.

From a CNS article

As for Pope Benedict's use of older, much taller miters, Msgr. Marini said they are a sign of how the church moves forward in history without ignoring or forgetting its past.

"Just as in his documents, a pope cites the pontiffs who preceded him in order to indicate the continuity of the church's magisterium, so in the liturgical sphere, a pope uses the vestments and sacred furnishings" of previous popes, demonstrating a continuity in prayer, he said.

I wonder how in the world anybody at a Catholic High School would think it would be a good idea to rent out their gymnasium for a Sen. Obama campaign stop. But Newman Catholic High School in Mason City, Iowa must have thought so. Here is a senator as pro-abortion as they come who as a state senator did what he could to block a Illinois state version of the born alive infants act. He voted to block the partial birth abortion ban and is in favor of embryonic stem-cell research. He is also in favor of homosexual marriage. So you have a Senator in favor of not only abortion but infanticide once the child is born and yet he is allowed to boost his campaign at a Catholic High School.

Though I am also not in favor of any candidates at any level of office speaking either in Catholic churches or Catholic schools.

As a side note I do wonder what the Obama banner covers up on the knight's shield and especially wonder if it might be a cross?

One of the nice side effects of becoming Catholic is that I have opened up my reading horizons. Most often I would read from SF and Fantasy, then with a smattering of military fiction, horror, suspected novels, and an occasional mystery and perhaps whatever might catch my eye in the new book stack at the library. Since my conversion I have opened up to a much wider world of literature based on recommendations from other Catholics.

I just finished In This House Of Brede by Rumer Godden and I was just about stunned at how good of a novel this is. The story takes place in a made-up Benedictine abbey in England as a career women finds she has a vocation and leaves her successful career behind her to become a nun. This book is certainly no pious stereotype of perfect contemplative nuns, but instead a book that reads more like an autobiography than a novel. The characters in the story are so real that you forget you are reading a novel. From the abbess down to the novices each person described could easily find their counterpart in real life.

Rumer Godden who his the author os some sixty books wrote this book after her conversion to Catholicism and spent three years living outside of a Benedictine abbey researching for this book. Her research certainly pays off because there is such an authenticity to her description of the Benedictine life and the struggles among the nuns to grow in holiness. There is also much wisdom in the book given as advice among the nuns that shows the author must have had a very deep understanding of living the spiritual life. The prose in the book is just a joy to read and there were many points where I dog-eared a page to be able to go back to something that was written. This is something that I pretty much never do with fiction. At one point she explains to one of her subordinates about being enclosed in the abbey.

"Enclosed?" this unfamiliar word seemed to ring in Penny's ears. "You mea-shut up?"

"Not shut up. The walls are not to keep us in but to keep you out."

"But why?"

"An enclosed order is like a kind of power house, " said Mrs. Talbot. "A powerhouse of prayer; you protect a power house not to enclose the power, but to stop unauthorized people getting in to hinder its working."

This book being written in the aftermath of the Vatican Council you also get some of the feel in the abbey of some of the whirlwind of changes that were affecting religious life, though you only get the feel of this towards the very end of the book. But you certainly get the idea that the author was less than pleased with some of the changes for change sake made. One of the nuns laments and dreads the idea of the priest praying Mass facing the community saying it will be as if the priest is giving a performance and not leading us to God as he faces the altar. Though the majority of the book does not give in to criticisms but the daily life and difficulties of these nuns in community.

This is a great novel from a wonderful writer and one I look forward to reading more of.

Julie from Happy Catholic has been reading from another of the author's books called China Court. Julie got permission to read this on her Forgotten Classics podcast even though the book is still in copyright. Check it out here .

A reader sent me this lovely story.

While surfing the Internet earlier this month, a Cincinnati Jew found a way to help his Christian friends and celebrate the Christmas spirit.

Jeff Harris, a lawyer with a Downtown law firm, was reading a story noting that someone had stolen a Baby Jesus figurine from a Bal Harbor, Fla., Nativity scene.

Harris dipped into his pocket and paid for a replacement.

“I’m Jewish and Christian people have always done nice things to me,” Harris said Monday.

A lawyer for 31 years, Harris read of the theft from Dina Cellini’s private Nativity scene in Bal Harbor, on the barrier islands immediately east of near Miami.

Believing the Nativity scene was municipal property, Harris sent am e-mail to city officials asking if he could pay for a replacement Baby Jesus.

“Each Christmas season as a thank you to all my Christian friends I try to do something to acknowledge what a great country this is to live in and to acknowledge the tolerance and good will of the Christian community,” Harris wrote in an e-mail to Bal Harbor officials.

Harris sent the e-mail Dec. 5 – the first day of Hanukkah. Officials forwarded the e-mail to Cellini.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited but, by the same token, I thought it might be a prank,” Cellini said Monday.

A Florida attorney, Cellini looked Harris up and confirmed he was a Cincinnati lawyer.

She called him to accept his generous offer to buy the replacement Baby Jesus. made in the Renaissance style.

The figurine was made in Italy but Cellini was told by the company that it had one in Chicago.

Harris called the company, bought it and had it shipped to Florida.

“This is unbelievable. He’s a complete stranger, has no connection to south Florida,” Cellini said Monday.

“He did this out of the goodness of his heart. It’s a beautiful gesture.”

The Vatican unveils their Nativity scene with the four not so little drummer boys.

Sandro Magister comments on and posts in full Pope Benedict's pre-Christmas address to the Roman curia three day.

..To be disciples of Christ - what does this mean? In the first place, it means coming to know him. How does this happen? It is an invitation to listen to him as He speaks to us in the text of the Sacred Scripture, as He addresses himself to us and comes to meet us in the common prayer of the Church, in the Sacraments, and in the witness of the saints.

One can never get to know Christ only theoretically. One can master the knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, without ever having met Him. Integral to knowing Him is walking together with Him, entering into his sentiments, as the letter to the Philippians says (2:5). Paul briefly describes these sentiments as follows: having the same love, forming together one soul (sýmpsychoi), going in agreement, not doing anything out of rivalry or vainglory, each not looking out only for his own interests, but also for those of others (2:24).

Catechesis can never be only an intellectual instruction, it must also always become an apprenticeship in communion of life with Christ, an exercise in humility, justice, and love. Only in this way do we walk together with Jesus Christ along his way; only in this way is the eye of our heart opened; only in this way do we learn to understand the Scriptures, and encounter Him.

The encounter with Jesus Christ requires listening, it requires a response in prayer and in the practice of what He tells us. In coming to know Christ, we come to know God, and it is only by beginning from God that we understand man and the world, a world that otherwise remains a meaningless question.

Becoming disciples of Christ is, therefore, a journey of education toward our true being, toward authentic human existence.

...In this regard, I am pleased to recall the letter kindly sent to me last October 13 by 138 Muslim religious leaders, to testify to their common commitment to the promotion of peace in the world. With joy I responded by expressing my steadfast adherence to such noble intentions, and at the same time emphasizing the urgency of a common effort for the protection of the values of mutual respect, dialogue, and collaboration. Shared recognition of the existence of one God, the provident Creator and universal Judge of each one's behavior, constitutes the premise of common action in defense of the effective respect of the dignity of each human person, to build a more just and supportive society.

But does this desire for dialogue and collaboration at the same time mean, perhaps, that we can no longer transmit the message of Jesus Christ, no longer propose to men and to the world this call and the hope that is derived from it? Those who have recognized a great truth, those who have found a great joy must transmit it; they simply cannot keep it for themselves. Gifts so great are never intended for just one person.

Fr. Z posts a great article on liturgical music from Michael Knox Beran at National Review.

But if good music does not always save the soul, bad music never does. When the electric guitar sounds during the Sacrifice of the Mass, the cherubim weep.

I don't know about the cherubim weeping, but I can certainly shed a tear when this happens and it is not a tear of joy. As someone who plays the electric guitar and who is a certified head banger I never want to hear electric guitar used in the liturgy and think only very rarely that an acoustic guitar can be used in the liturgy properly.

*Is.11:1 and Rom.15:12

Related post - The Mathsiah

BAL HARBOUR, Fla. — A baby Jesus statue, part of a Nativity scene here, will be equipped with a Global Positioning System after the disappearance of a previous statue, which had been bolted down.

"I don't anticipate this will ever happen again," said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display, "but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior."

The Mary and Joseph statues will also be fitted with GPS devices, she said. The devices are being bought with residents' contributions and Cellini's own money. Cellini has also installed a Plexiglas screen in front of the display.

Do you know where you Baby Jesus in your Nativity set is? With the rash of Baby Jesus thefts across the country whether it be public or private land how can you be sure? Do your check your lawn often fearing some Nativity scene napper with who know what nefarious scheme? Or perchance that it will be stolen only to be returned later with glued on devil horns as happened recently in Norwalk, Connecticut. Have you considered even resorting to using a chain attached to the leg of the Baby Jesus regardless of the aesthetics of this act? If so you might consider our new product - Find Jesus®! Our plastic Baby Jesus plastic doll product Find Jesus® comes with and embedded GPS transmitter, external antenna, and combined with our unique receiver you will know where it is at all time. You won't be omnipresence, but you will know where Jesus is at all time. No more late night worries or concerns will plague you. This GPS loop transmitting antenna cleverly disguised as a halo will ensure that you can track your Baby Jesus no matter where it is taken The provided GPS receiver will help you track down your property if it does come up missing. This small compact unit will give you an exact location at every moment. If it detects that it has been moved from the preset position an alarm is sounded immediately. Simply follow the onscreen and audible instructions to retrieve your Baby Jesus or to provide the police with its location. Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep which he was willing to go look for and find. Return the favor and Find Jesus®. You might wonder how we can offer such compact and beyond state of the art technology? We have developed a new process called Niño Technology. Niño Technology provides very small programmed machines that operate the receiver and transmitter. So do you know where your Baby Jesus is? You will if you have Find Jesus®

Tony Blair joins Catholic Church

Former prime minister Tony Blair has left the Anglican Church to become a Roman Catholic.

His wife and children are already Catholic and there had been speculation he would convert after leaving office.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Conner, who led the service to welcome Mr Blair, said he was "very glad" to do so.

Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq.

And one of Mr Blair’s final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican in June where he met Pope Benedict XVI.

‘Regular worshipper’

Mr Blair was received into full communion with the Catholic Church during Mass at Archbishop’s House, Westminster, on Friday.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who is the head of Catholics in England and Wales, said: "I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church.

Fr. Z. has some cogent remarks about this in consideration of Mr. Blairs past support for homosexuality and abortion.

At the same time, none of us are finished products yet. I suspect Mr. Blair or other politicians will not change his positions if they are constantly blasted with nastiness. Persuasion is needed. In no way does this condone public denial of Catholic doctrine. I am trying to underscore the fallen dimension of our human experience.

Thus, I am glad that Mr. Blair desired closer unity with the Catholic Church and acted on it. However, I would like some clarifications.

Hopefully we will get some clarifications on this. If he has not changed his positions that are contrary to Church teaching I would certainly like to know how the Cardinal would justify brining him into the Church at this time. As I have mentioned before in connection to this is that one of my favorite stories from Alice Von Hildebrand's book "Soul of a Lion" about her husband Dietrich is that when he was taking private instructions to come into the Church he announced to the priest that he was ready to enter the Church. The priest knowing Dietrich's opposition to the Church's teaching on contraception told him he would not bring him into the Church unto he accepted this. Dietrich then made an act of faith and said that he believes all that the Church teaches and then later became a great teaching on the truth of the evil of contraception.

None of us enter the Church perfected, though I would think that when we make the Profession at Faith when being received into the Church and saying that we believe all that she teaches that there should be a reasonable chance that we are telling the truth. To bring someone in that we knew to not hold all that the Church teaches would be to have them perjure themselves before God.

I sincerely hope that he has had a change of heart and if not that he will in the future.

Update: I see that Diogenes is on the same page as myself on this:

Tony Blair recants position on abortion!

Well he did, didn't he? And somehow I just missed the headline?

In order to be received into the Catholic Church, one must make a profession of faith, affirming that one believes all that the Church teaches. And the Church teaches that support for abortion is gravely wrong, and so now we know-- don't we?-- that Blair recognizes his past public stance was gravely wrong. Don't we?

Don't we?

Hello? Hello?

If true this is a pretty funny.

"Who is your favorite author?" Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa moments.

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

"My favorite author is C. S. Lewis," she said.

Candidates do have strange answers at times to this question. Mitt Romney replied before that Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard was his favorite novel. On one level that answer makes a lot of sense since L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith have a lot in common in that both made up their own religions. But on a literary taste level Battlefield Earth was just a so-so SF novel that really needed an editor. Though if Mitt had replied that Battlefield Earth was his favorite movie I think that would have totally disqualified him from running for president. But Mitt seems to have flipped (what a surprise) on his literary choice since his Facebook entry lists a bunch of novels as his favorites and none of them were Battlefield Earth.

Mike Huckabee's Facebook page lists his favorite books as " The Holy Bible, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mere Christianity, and anything by Francis Schaeffer." So he really blew it with the seven year old and would have done much better mentioning Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

Sen. John McCain's favorite novel is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" which is also the theme for his campaign.

For Rudy Giuliani his selections "Testimony by Nicolas Sarkozy, Churchill, Their Finest Hour, Profiles in Courage, Lincoln, Babe: The Legend Comes to Life" seem like books he would ask someone to come up with to make him look smart. Can you trust a guy that can't list one piece of fiction other then his conservative credentials?

Neither Duncan Hunter or Ron Paul's Facebook page list any favorite books.

John C. Wright responding to a materialist.

...Let us assume you had the power, the Thought Control Helmet, to reorganize at will any brain you came across, so that the ideas in that brain would conform to whatever conclusions and ideas you preferred. The moment you use it, you are treating people like rocks: they would for all practical purposes be inert material, robots or animals, things without any moral or human meaning to you. If you used the Mind Helmet on Trilby to make her fall in love with you, it would have no more meaning to you than if you wrote a love letter to your self and forged her name on it. It would not represent any judgment or thought or honest emotion on her part. It would be fan-fiction, but one where you put yourself in as a character and get Uhura to kiss you.

You would never discuss or debate or disagree with anyone again. Instead of the frustration of trying to make your ideas clear to them in words, you could merely zap them with the helmet-ray, and their thoughts would be whatever you wished. You could perhaps as a game pretend these robot people were real, and let them say and think whatever nature had randomly written into their brain-mechanisms, but it would be you pretending they were human. It would not even be a game. It would be a pastime, like solitaire. Their words and ideas would have no truth value to you.

But no matter how you treated other people, you could not treat yourself the same way; you would not use your Mind Control Helmet to force yourself to think certain ideas, because the ideas would have no truth-value to you if you imposed them on yourself in that fashion. I am not saying the owner of such a machine might not want to lie to himself in his own thoughts, or bury an unhappy memory--but the utility of ideas qua ideas, the usefulness we seek from the process of reasoning, would be lost.

Ideas that are imposed on you by the helmet, if you knew they were imposed, would not persuade you that they were true. If you did not know they were imposed, but thought you had reasoned your way to their conclusion, you were merely be deceived and insane. You could no longer trust your own thoughts to be corresponding to reality. If you eliminated from yourself the desire to have trustworthy thoughts or to have them correspond to reality, or if you eliminate your awareness of what you had done to yourself, at that point you are a muppet.

The reason why materialism is self-contradictory is that you are in effect telling me that your thoughts are controlled by a Mind Control Helmet that runs without an operator, merely Mother Nature blinding sending out unintentional thought-control-signals. But, if you actually believed that, you would conclude that your thoughts have no truth value.

Whether John C. Wright is speaking on the Space Princess movement or materialism he is always fun to read and his recent series of posts responding to materialism are quite good.

A statement has been issued from the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Charges about Father Leo Tibesar & St. Frances Cabrini Parish

Various bloggers and websites have reported that Father Leo Tibesar, of Saint Frances Cabrini Parish in Minneapolis announced his intention to bless same sex marriages. Those reports are not true. Father Tibesar has never blessed a same sex marriage nor does he intend to do so, which would be a violation of his priestly vows and state. He made this very clear in a public clarification issued by Saint Frances Cabrini’s parish council and following a meeting with Archbishop Harry J. Flynn.

During his meeting with Archbishop Flynn and Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates, Father Tibesar also agreed to remove any language from the St. Frances Cabrini parish website that is in opposition to Roman Catholic Church doctrine and to refrain from statements in any form that are contrary to Church teaching. He confirmed these commitments to Archbishop Flynn in a letter following their meeting. Communications Office, Archdiocese of StP&M

I find the parsing of what they said to be a tad disingenuous.

Charges about Father Leo Tibesar & St. Frances Cabrini Parish Various bloggers and websites have reported that Father Leo Tibesar, of Saint Frances Cabrini Parish in Minneapolis announced his intention to bless same sex marriages. Those reports are not true.

Well what the parish website said on reconciliation with homosexuals.

"Publicly bless the relationships of a same sex couple after the couple completes a process of discernment similar to that completed by heterosexual couples before marriage;"

How is this not an intention to bless so-called same sex marriages? You could say that it certainly might be true that Fr. Tibesar did not say this. Though you might think he has some responsibility for what is written on his parish's website, especially something up their for a while. This page is now removed so certainly they knew what pages had to be removed.

For years Fr. Tibesar has been part of the Leo Tibesar pro-homosexual lobbying group dignity as part of their National Leadership Team. He was made pastor even after this. In July of 2007 he once again participated in Dignity's annual convention where one of the workshops said "We will discuss John Paul’s definition of marriage in his day and how it supports gay marriage today." From his homily last month:

Two people came into Church to pray, one was a Catholic Archbishop who refuses communion to Rainbow Sash people at the Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday who prayed " I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others – greedy, dishonest or like others who need to make their dissent from official Church teaching so public and divisive.

The other were Rainbow parents of GLBT people at the Cathedral on Pentecost who stood off on the side and prayed, "Oh God be merciful to us for failing to attend our own Churches more often; they say they love God then turn there backs on us in hate directly contrary to 1:John,4 – whoever loves God must also love the neighbor."

The Rainbow Sash Movement also supports same-sex marriages among other things totally against the truth of Catholic teaching. So I guess we are to believe that since he belongs to a pro-homosexual acts lobbying group that specifically supports so-called same-sex marriage, and his own parish's website does the same, and he supports a homosexual movement that does the same "that these reports are not true".

I know it is too much to expect that a diocese/bishop actually thank bloggers and others for bringing things to their attention. I am really glad that the Bishop has spoken to Fr. Tibesar and especially glad that Fr. Tibesar has agreed to remove those pages on his website and to refrain from making statements in opposition to Church teaching. Though I must wonder if "these reports are not true" why is the diocese asking him to refrain from making statements in opposition to Church teaching? Which is it.

I also wonder when they will ask St. Joan of Arc in the same diocese to remove all of their pages they have on their site in opposition to Church teaching?

Father Z comments on this story since he is originally from this diocese and has some good points about not taking delight in the misfortune of others, though I think within the Catholic blogosphere this has not been done in reference to this story.

I think though why this statement has fired me up is that the diocese was saying that what bloggers reported was not true. I looked through the less than 20 blogs that reported on this story and not one of them asserted that this priest was performing same-sex marriages. They posted on what the parish's website said, his involvement in dignity, and the contents of his homily last month. None of these facts are in contention and for them to say otherwise is less than the truth.

A reader sent me the following story:

The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men was nothing but a 'legend'.

Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three of them or that they were kings. Archbishop says nativity 'a legend'

Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a 'legend' He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew's gospel and the details were very vague.

Dr Williams said: "Matthew's gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that's all we're really told. It works quite well as legend."

The Archbishop went on to dispel other details of the Christmas story, adding that there were probably no asses or oxen in the stable.

He argued that Christmas cards which showed the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, flanked by shepherds and wise men, were misleading. As for the scenes that depicted snow falling in Bethlehem, the Archbishop said the chance of this was "very unlikely". advertisement

In a final blow to the traditional nativity story, Dr Williams concluded that Jesus was probably not born in December at all. He said: "Christmas was when it was because it fitted well with the winter festival."

Fr. Dwight Longenecker has some interesting comments about the Anglican Archbishop's comments.

Archbishop Rowan Williams has publicly debunked the traditional Nativity as 'legend'. Anyone who has read the New Testament in detail will know that the stuff of medieval paintings, crib scenes and Christmas cards include a good deal of non-Biblical 'embroidery'. However, one doesn't need to deconstruct all of that to somehow prove one's intellectual credentials.

The Archbishop presents himself as an intellectual Anglo Catholic, but all his recent comments do is prove his Protestant mindset. The liberal Protestant is essentially a critic. He is a critic of the Bible, a critic of tradition, a critic of traditional Christian morality, a critic of anything that is the received religion. The liberal Protestant feels obliged to pick it apart, reduce it to facts and submit the mysteries of the faith to human reason.

What interests me is that many of our conservative Evangelical friends want to distance themselves from the liberal intellectual reductionism of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but when it comes to Catholicism are they not just as critical, just as rational, just as reductionist as the ABC? In fact, Protestantism has in its very genetic code the same rationalism, reductionism, individualism and humanism which is exhibited by the Archbishop's comments--it's just that in Evangelicalism it comes to move 'conservative' conclusions.

It is certainly true as Fr. Longenecker said that there is a lot of non-Biblical 'embroidery' on the Nativity story, but really what has happened over time is that events have been compressed just as what often happens when a book is turned into a movie. What we have in Matthew is a mentioning of wise men who first visited Herod, later gave gifts to Jesus and then being warned in a dream left without seeing Herod first. The great Catholic apologist Frank Sheed argues in his book "To Know Christ Jesus" that they must have appeared after Mary's Presentation in the Temple since her and Joseph paid a poor mans sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" which they wouldn't have done if they already had the gifts given by the wise men.

So in reality the Christmas Card view of the Nativity doesn't fit reality and we just don't even know for sure the number of wise men. Though surely the traditional number of three wise men is because of the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh along with the Trinitarian overtones. The ideas of them being Kings instead of astrologers though is surely an addition. But this type of reductionism would ruin great songs and who wants to sing "We undetermined number of wise men who are probably astrologers and not kings coming somewhere from the East though sometimes after Jesus' birth are,"

What is so silly and needless about the Archbishop's remarks is that surely he knows how his remarks will be portrayed and seen as not only casting doubt on aspects of the Nativity story, but also on the birth of Jesus. To make these remarks just before Christmas plays right into the media's hands. The BBC has the audio of the interview with the caption " Simon Mayo talks to the Archbishop of Canterbury and asks if he really believes that there's a Big Wizard who lives in the sky?"

Early in my blogging career another Church of England bishop concerned about the accuracy of the Nativity gave me the opportunity to pun away.

A Church of England bishop has attacked "sentimental" Christmas card portrayals of the Nativity, saying that Jesus's family were asylum seekers and the three Wise Men were part of an assassination plot.

The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Keith Sutton, said the shepherds were not the lovable characters depicted in Nativity plays but were on "the fringes of society" and that, for most people, Christmas was a chore.

Did Herod the Great contract out a hit to three foreigners for plausible deniability? How did this assassination go awry? Did King herod say "Go and murder him" and they thought he said "Gold and myrrh to him"?, frankly that makes sense.

There is the old joke sometimes told by pastors of people calling them up and asking them what time Midnight Mass is. I guess thought that in parts of Britain the question is a valid one.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Roman Catholic churches across Britain plan to stage midnight mass early on Christmas Eve to avoid drunk revelers on the loose after the pubs shut.

A survey by the Catholic weekly magazine The Tablet showed churches planned to hold mass as early as six in the evening to avoid running the risk of disturbance from drunks staggering out of the pub at the traditional closing time of 11 p.m.

"A lot of people, having been disgorged from the pub, were attracted to the light and music and used to disrupt proceedings," said Father James O'Keefe at St Bede's Church in the northeastern city of Newcastle.

In the Scottish city of Glasgow, Father Joseph McNulty said: "I wouldn't hold a Midnight Mass at midnight because of the drunks. There would be too much trouble."

In other Christmas news, Christmas is now a national holiday in Iraq. (Thanks to the reader that sent that in.)

First Things has a interesting post Looking for Mary in Christmas Carols By Michael Linton where he references just how few Christmas carols actually reference Mary. It is hard to imagine a Christmas Crèche without Mary, but I guess most carols written since the Protestant reformation have done so.

Though this is not just a Protestant divide and something that effects just carols. Think of all the modern hymns that have unfortunately become standards in so many Catholic churches. I can think of only one one: Hail Mary: Gentle Woman. While the lyrics are okay I find the melody to be rather droning and when compared to some of the magnificent hymns for Mary, it is severely lacking. Funny with all the talk about inclusive language in the liturgy there has been no outcry against the lack of Marian hymns at most modern Masses.

Greg and Jennifer of the Rosary Army have constantly entertained and informed me since they started their podcast. But I have to admit that they have exceeded themselves in their 200th show "Rosary Army: The Musical." A Podcast Opera with multiple songs detailing their life that would make Peter Townsend say "Wow!" I especially liked the song "What would Scott Hahn" do.

Rosary Army and SQPN are currently in a fund drive and you can now get the episodes of That Catholic Show on DVD.

Dawn Eden continues her series on international Planned Parenthood ads with items such as "Quality not Quantity" and "Two is better that too many."

Around this time of year we often hear about the "common knowledge" that the date of Christmas was in fact based on the date of a Pagan feast to do a sort of holiday one-upmanship. I have already heard this at least once this year during a television drama and often heard it from my Uncle as I was growing up.

Even in Catholic circles we often hear about Pagan holidays and practices being "baptized." Mostly we hear about this in regards to All Saints Day and Christmas. The facts are otherwise and what is not true about All Saints Day is also not true about the date of Christmas. Last year Mark Shea posted a section from his upcoming book on Mary.

Time was when I, like most people, took it for granted the winter solstice and, in particular, the Roman Feast of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun were simply pagan celebrations that hung around into Christian times. In fact, when I set out to write this book I still thought this. But I discovered the reality is far more complicated and interesting. Indeed, it turns out this widely assumed "fact" that "everybody knows" is probably another sample of pseudo-knowledge. For according to William Tighe, a church history specialist at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College, "the pagan festival of the 'Birth of the Unconquered Sun' instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the 'pagan origins of Christmas' is a myth without historical substance."

For the fact is, our records of a tradition associating Jesus' birth with December 25 are decades older than any records concerning a pagan feast on that day.

[T]he definitive "Handbook of Biblical Chronology" by professor Jack Finegan (Hendrickson, 1998 revised edition) cites an important reference in the "Chronicle" written by Hippolytus of Rome three decades before Aurelian launched his festival. Hippolytus said Jesus' birth "took place eight days before the kalends of January," that is, Dec. 25.

Tighe said there's evidence that as early as the second and third centuries, Christians sought to fix the birth date to help determine the time of Jesus' death and resurrection for the liturgical calendar—long before Christmas also became a festival.

Read the rest of his informative post to find out why originally the early Christians had determined that Dec 25th was the date of our Savior's birth.

NEW YORK - Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy "The Lord of the Rings."

Jackson, who directed the "Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.

Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday.

"I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson said in a statement. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."

Two "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three "Lord of the Rings" films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

I do hope that they are able to cast Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf once again. I have watched the LOTR trilogy of movies multiple times and each time I find just how amazing Ian McKellen's performance was and that his performance should have won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar. His homosexual activism is annoying, but it doesn't spoil for me his pitch perfect portrayal of Gandalf or the excellent job he did as Magneto in X-Men.

Marcel LeJeune

St. Anthony Messenger (a publication normally of dubious value) has an interesting article on the background of the Christmas carol "Do You Hear What I Hear" and that it was actually written in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis by the same composers who wrote "Rain, Rain, Go Away."

With all of the blocking being done to Summorum Pontificum being done by certain bishops we could only wish they could find this same zeal for other projects. What if these bishops were as effective in blocking the will of the Holy Father and in reality also the previous Holy Father in regards to the TLM as they were to closing down abortion clinics in their diocese?

What if they showed the same concern towards knowing the rubrics of the TLM as they did to the ordinary rite? Is it any wonder some take with more than a grain of salt these new found worries that priests more than adequately know the Mass and to perform it correctly. Now certainly the bishop has a clear role in ensuring his priests have the proper training and that they conform to liturgical regulations, but why exactly is it that there seems to be a rigorist view of this towards the TLM and a Lassie Faire attitude towards the ordinary form of the Mass. Strangely I had the odd idea that the same view should be taken towards all forms of liturgy in the diocese, but maybe that's just me.

For the last several years Planned Parenthood has been selling their "Choice on Earth" Holiday cards and the ones to the left are this years products. This is one occasion where I am totally fine with them using holiday cards vice Christmas cards.

The images used on their cards once again give absolutely no indication of the reality of "choice". Two images are of a mother with a child, yet Planned Parenthood offers zero services for those who want to keep their child.

Mark Steyn wrote quite accurately recently "What's the "pro-choice" line? "Every child should be wanted"? Not anymore. The progressive position has subtly evolved: Every child should be unwanted." But in some ways for PP every child is a wanted child, at least wanted by their abortionists so that they might get their bounty. But this view towards families is not just a recent development, but one with a steady message since at least the seventies. Anybody with a large family can attest to the questions they get about them being "all theirs" and the glances turned their way for making a societal faux pas. Though I once had the same attitude in my enlightened liberal days.

Considering the recent news of environmental activists saying having a child is selfish and damaging to the environment and the recent books as Mark Steyn notes such as ""Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence." Planned Parenthood and radical environmentalist are natural allies except the part about the pill damaging the ecosystem with hormones. But Planned Parenthood and radical environmentalist have always had their convenient blind spots when it suits their purposes.

The card with the doves though is obviously the most annoying. Whether the dove is seen as a symbol for the Holy Spirit or as a symbol for peace it is still inappropriate. Blessed Mother Teresa said "I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion"

But I guess the reality of babies ripped apart and removed by suction is not the best image even for a "holiday card." Even contraception doesn't lend itself to the comfy holiday image they are trying to portray. A tree decked out with condoms and pill packages just doesn't hit it out of the park.

Though the question is exactly what holiday are these cards for in the first place? Christmas with the celebration of the birth of our savior is obviously not it. They see a pregnant young mother as a target and not something to rejoice in. The miracle related during Hanukkah with the traditional Jews defeating secularist Jews when Judaism had been outlawed by Antiochus IV Epiphanes does not really fit into a holiday they would be happy about. The made-up of holiday of Kwanzaa doesn't fit the bill considering the historic roots of Planned Parenthood and their view on blacks that extends to the present day with a concentration of their clinics being in poorer black neighborhoods. Well how about the secular holiday of Christmas where the overriding message is "Family is important." Somehow abortion and contraception is not really family friendly. If only they would start making those dime-a-dozen holiday TV movies with the message "Preventing family is important" then PP would have a match.

In years past I have responded with Planned Parenthood cards of my own since I am always willing to help get out the real message of Planned Barrenhood.

2003

2005

So I guess I will continue this bi-annual holiday tradition.

Dawn Eden orignally sent me a link to PP's latest message.

Planned Parenthood supporters, as I reflect upon the past year and consider the next, I can't help but feel a sense of good will. Good will toward the women, men, and families that we serve. Good will toward you, my Planned Parenthood family. And good, determined will to accomplish the work that lies ahead in the new year.

Well I agree that they have work that lies ahead - "lies ahead" is pretty much a forecast of their business model.

Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady is a new book by Fr. Joseph Langford, MC who was a co-founder of the priests community for the Missionaries of Charity. This book put out by Our Sunday Visitor concentrates on Blessed Mother Teresa's devotion to our Blessed Mother. I had never thought much about Mother Teresa in connection with our Blessed Mother other than to think like pretty much all saints that she would have had a fervent devotion to Our Lady. This book goes in depth just how fervent that devotion was and just how much it informed her life and prayer life.

She is of course well known for always carrying a Rosary with her that were often in her hands. For her this was no mere accessory as part of her habit, but evidence of her close connection with Our Lady. She was once asked way she always carried a Rosary in her hand even when it was obvious she was not praying it at time. She responded that it reminds her that she is holding the Our Lady's hand. The term "Our Lady" is what she predominately and simply referred to Mary as. The book describes the vision she had on the train to Darjeeling in 1947 when she first received her "call within a call" to serve the poorest of the poor. Subsequently in 1947 she had a series of vision in three parts that in the visions of Jesus, with Mary at his side, in a crowd of the poor where the